Code Omnitrix
by harvey45
Summary: Ben Tennyson gets transported to Lyoko, where our heroes find him and try to get him back to his own reality. Meanwhile, Ben proves to be a big help along the way.
1. The Void

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or Code Lyoko.

**Code Omnitrix**

The Void

"Almost… Done."

Grandpa Max had just finished adding a new attachment to the null void projector. While he was working, Gwen and Ben were off challenging eachother, with Gwen doing a hurricane spell while Ben as Stinkfly tried to stay steady in it. As soon as Max said he was done, Gwen decided to forfeit and ran over to the rustbucket to see.

"Cool, grandpa!" said Gwen looking at the new attachment. Ben came over to see what Gwen was so exited about.

"What's so special about a- WOAH Grandpa, That thing looks soooooooo much cooler now!" The new projecter was now in rifle form, and it had a sniper scope.

"Well, the only thing left to do is give it a field test," said Grandpa Max. I wonder where we could find someth-

All of a sudden, a meteor hit just to the left of them, and it stood up, obviously one of Vilgax's robots.

"Well, that was convinient," Gwen said.

"It'll probably not enter the null void portal without a little encouragement," Ben said. "I think I can give it some!" Within moments Diamondhead was standing right where Ben was before. "You stand over there and project the portal, while I go 'distract' it."

"Whatever, Ben, just go."

"My pleasure."

Using clubs and stabbing weapons of all kinds with his crystal body, he had it pinned in around 8 minutes. Max sniped the portal right where the robot was, but his calculations for the scope had been a bit off. Diamondhead Ben had to carry the robot over and throw it in. Ben gave the thumbs up when it was ready to be closed, but when Max shut it down, the portal stayed. In fact, it turned a light shade of blue instead of the usual yellow!

"What's going on?" asked Gwen.

Max replied, "The focusing lens must have been knocked a bit out of place, causing the portal to stay open a little longer than expected, and while on extended time, could send whatever goes through to a different reality. Ben! Get away from there!"

But it was already too late. The omnitrix symbol on his chest began to blink red rapidly, meaning it was running low on time to remain active. He turned back to Ben, and without the extra weight of the crystal alien he just was, was sucked into the new blue portal. Max and Gwen tried to get over in time, but the portal closed too late. Ben was lost to an alternate reality, and who knows how much work it would take to find him and bring him back safely.


	2. Virtualization

Virtualization

Ben wound up in a place he had totally never seen before. He had been to the null void once before, so he knew that was not where he was. He looked around at everything, in a 3D that looks like computer graphics. Not only was he in an alternate reality, he was in a _virtual_ reality, like a real-life videogame! He decided to test out the omnitrix to see if it still worked in this world.

It worked, all right, but he had totally new aliens. Based on the silluettes, One looked like a cube with legs, one looked like a weird egg or pod with legs, one looked like a huge bee, one looked like a crab, one looked like a 4 legged bug, and one looked like just a circle. Only 6 aliens here, he thought he was screwed. He decided to turn into the one that looked like a pod, just to see what it actually did look like.

All of a sudden, he was a lot shorter and slower. He found he could shoot lazers from below his eye and swivel his head 360°, but he couldn't see himself at all.

He turned and saw a person who looked a bit like a cat coming towards him. He didn't know if he was friend or foe, so he just sat there and stared at him.

"Uh, Jeremie, we might have a slight problem."

A voice Ben couln't find the source of spoke back, "What is it, Odd, I see a monster on your screen. Why aren't you fighting it?"

"Because it has a symbol that kinda resembles a black and white hourglass where the eye of XANA would usually be, and he isn't shooting, he's just staring."

"Still, get rid of it. If it's a trap planted by XANA…"

"Yeah, yeah." The guy the voice called odd started shooting at Ben from his wrist. Ben dodged by jumping aside, but now was stuck on his side and couldn't get up. The odd guy shot again, and he felt himself transform back into a human.

"Uh, Jeremie, bigger problem…"

"Yeah Odd, I see it. The kankrelot you devirtualized just got replaced by a Hominoid, like yourself. Is it William?"

"No, It's some 9 year old kid in a black & white shirt with a watch that looks mysteriously like the symbol on the kankrelot."

"Hey, I'm 10, not 9!" Ben said back now that there was a gap in Odd's and Jeremie's talking.

"Oops, sorry, dude. Jeremie, should I devirtualize him?"

"He doesn't seem connected to the supercomputer in any way, like Aelita was, so yeah, if you shoot him he should wind up back here."

"Wait, your gonna de-what me?" Ben asked.

"Don't worry, whoever you are, it won't hurt a bit." Odd pointed his wrist straight at Ben's chest. "Lazer Arrow!"

Ben blanked out for a moment, then realized he was back into a real world, at least realer than the game-world. He checked his watch, and all his original aliens were still there. The door in front of him opened up, and he found he was in some sort of sci-fi computer lab. Another door opened up and he saw a more human version of the guy he met on the computer world step out. Some pink-haired girl who he didn't even know was apperently waiting for them.

"Come on you guys, Jeremie can't wait forever," she said as Ben looked around at all the tech in the room with awe. He wondered what Jeremie would be like, some god or computer that controls all computers and people, or a person using a computer to gain superiority over mankind.

He was closer with the second one. Jeremie was a teen, maybe 13 or 14, but definitely a computer nerd. Jeremie explained all about Lyoko, the supercomputer, and the gang, though Ben only understood about ¾ of it. Odd leaned down and whispered in his ear, "Don't worry, some of his words are too big for us too."

Next, Ben explained how he got to Lyoko, and all about the omnitrix.

"Hmm, let me see that omnitrix thing of yours," Jeremie said. Ben held out his arm so Jeremie could look at the omnitrix more closely. Jeremie attached a couple of wires to it and plugged it into the supercomputer. It showed pictures of each of his aliens, and pictures of each of the aliens he saw he could become in Lyoko, plus some. "It appears that while you are on Earth, you can turn into only these 'aliens,' while on Lyoko you can turn into any of the monsters XANA can create. Wait a minute, what's this?"

He was looking at an order of aliens arranged like a combination. It looked vaguely familiar to Ben, then he remembered.

"That's the master control! Normally the omnitrix times out after 10 min., but with that enabled, I can turn any alien I want immediately and for however long I want. I activated it once, but I screwed it up when I thought it would surely get stolen." Ben unplugged the watch from the computer, and activated the master control. To test if it worked, Ben transformed into Heatblast, Wildmutt, Diamondhead, XLR8, Graymatter, Fourarms, Stinkfly(which got a not-so-funny comment from Odd), Ripjaws, Upgrade, Ghostfreak, Cannonbolt, and Wildvine. He didn't bother with the ones he didn't turn into often, such as Benwolf or Benmummy.

The gang said he could stay at the factory, seeing as it would be pointless to enroll him in Kadic. They promised to do all they could to get him home, and Ben promised to help them save the world through the computer until they could get him back.


	3. Xanafied

Note: I don't really know when in Ben 10 I set this, it's after he has gotten all known aliens 10 yr. old Ben has, But I have decided that this takes place in Code Lyoko between episodes 79 and 80, Bragging Rights and Dog Day Afternoon. So, this is after William is under Xana's control and they found a replika, but this story is way before Xana uses Kolossus for the first time and they find out just how many replikas are out there.  
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Xanafied

Ben had been hanging out at the factory for a week, learning a bit more about Lyoko from the other warriors. They brought him food and drink, once Yumi even invited him over to her house for dinner. There were a couple minor towers activated during the course of the week, but nothing was extremely bad yet. They had another warrior on the team, and unlike William, Ben knew more about how to be a hero. He was a bit cocky, but he didn't stray as far from the instructions of the group during the missions. He figured that the only way he could get home is through obedience. In the 2 battles he fought, the first time he managed to take 2 krabes out as a hornet. The second time, he challenged Odd to see who could take out more bloks when Xana tried another mini army, setting a new record of 50 vs. the old record of 46 from the time that Xana used a simulation bubble. Odd got 17, Ben got 16, and with that they figured Yumi got 12 because Aelita had managed to get 5. Ulrich was stuck in the lunchroom protecting students from possessed snakes.

Jeremie was sitting at the factory computer, trying to write a program to open a path through realities.

"I'd never thought there were any other alternate universes out there, and now I'm having to figure a way to travel between them. I wish I had some of your world's alien technology to help me out, for instance that 'null void projector' could really come in handy." Suddenly, the screen changed and showed a tower had been activated. Jeremie called everynone up and told them to come to the factory again quick. He put the window of the code he was working on off to the side, when a ghost appeared out of the computer and infected the Omnitrix.

"Uh, that's bad, right, Jeremie?" Ben asked.

"Yes, but at least he didn't take you yourself over. I don't know what he is planning on doing with your watch, but I don't think its anything good."

The watch activated itself, and dialed to Fourarms. As Ben changed, he lost control of his body. Luckily, the watch was as bugged as usual, and showed that it had something against Fourarms no matter who has control of it. In seconds Ditto was standing before Jeremie, but with the eye of Xana in place of the omnitrix symbol. In moments a hundred Dittos were swarmed in the computer lab and all were bent on attacking Jeremie.

Meanwhile, at Kadic, The other heroes were all running to the sewer entrance in the park. "I hope Jeremie's already sent Ben to clear us a straight path this time," Ulrich commented to the others.

"So do I," agreed Yumi.

They finally came to the factory, only to see a hundred little creatures knocked out on the ground, Jeremie, exhausted, in the middle, with a broken cord.

"What happened, Jeremie, Ben got a little to obnoxious for you?" Odd joked.

"Xana has control of Ben's watch. That's what the attack was. Apparently Xana can't use the master code when he has control of the watch. I tried to fight them all, so I broke a cord and electricuted one. They all somehow were electricuted, though. I guess all the clones this alien can make are connected somehow."

The eye of Xana started blinking on each of the clones. They were all sucked together, and Ben was left lying on the floor, barely coming to. "Ugh, what just happened?"

Jeremie started explaining. "Apparently, when Xana controls the watch, you as Ben can think independently, while your alien forms are under control of Xana."

"What alien was I?" Ben asked.

"I don't know, some sort of replicating one you hadn't mentioned before."

"Oh, right, I forgot I had Ditto. He's an alien who has unlimited cloning capabilities. However, if something happens to one of them, it happens to all of them. I first found this out when I stubbed my toe during 2 on 2 football and all 4 of me were hopping around."

By this time he had enough energy to stand up and go inside the factory with them. They still let him go to Lyoko with them, saying that the 3 of them facing even a Ben-Megatank was easier than Jeremie alone facing one of Ben's other aliens, least of all Upgrade or Greymatter, because they can easily ruin the supercomputer.

"Okay," Jeremie's voice boomed out over the forest sector. "The activated tower is down a path to your left."

They started moving in the direction of the tower. Meanwhile, Ben was trying to get the watch to recharge faster, and then remembered nothing would happen if he tried to use it. Xana had each of his forms under his control. For once, Ben didn't want the omnitrix to power up quickly. But for once, it did.

The omnitrix turned green, lit up with Xana's symbol, and dialed. Ben had no clue what he was going to turn into tis time. Xana seemed to either be putting a combination of monsters into the watch, or being indecisive, seeing as the watch kept turning back and forth rapidly. Finally, the watch stopped rotating and pushed itsef down. This transformation seemed to take longer than other transformations. After a short time, the Scyphozoa was hovering before them.

The team was near speechless. "Oh, snap. Uh, Jeremie…"

"I know, Odd. Just protect Aelita and GET THE HECK OUT OF THERE! Start heading toward the tower. Ulrich, Yumi, hold Ben off. We can't let Xana make her go crazy and jump off into the digital sea or take away the forest sector again or something."

On Jeremie's orders, Odd & Aelita ran off in the direction of the tower, and Ulrich & Yumi stayed and tried to fend off the Ben-Scyphozoa. They tried piercing the eye on it's dome, and it stunned it, but it didn't destroy it. They tried to sever all its tenacles to where they came out of the body. It worked, but they were growing back rapidly. They severed them again, and before they could grow back, Yumi near split it's dome head in two while Ulrich jabbed both sabers into it's eye. This still didn't work. It finally turned back into Ben after a while, and he fell on the ground, exausted.

"What was THAT? I remember this time, I was fighting it's control so much that I was self-conscious, but I still couldn't do anything. That power felt good, but it still left me powerless because Xana was using it and not me."

Yumi started explaining. "You were a Scyphozoa, and there was only one that used to exist on Lyoko, but not anymore. There is only one known surefire way to destroy it, and that is to overload it's brain. We have this submarine we call the Skidbladnir, Skid for short, and we use it to explore the digital sea. The Scyphozoa tried to suck out all of it's damage points once, but we turned on upgraded sheilds before it was finished. Anyway, we should get going."

Ulrich called up to Jeremie, "Is there any way we could catch up to them?"

"Oh, right, here are your vehicles. Ben, you can ride Odd's overboard, is that okay?"

"What's the overboard?"

In response to Ben's question, the overwing, overbike, and overboard were materialised right in front of them. Yumi and Ulrich hopped on their rides. Ulrich looked back at Ben.

"Well, you just gonna stand there or you gonna hop on the board?"

"Wow, it's just like the board my future self owns!" Ben ran over, jumped on the overboard, and sped off.

Jeremie was on the verge of laughing. "Ben, wrong way."

"Uh…, oops." Ben turned around and caught up with the others going the opposite direction.

Meanwhile, Aelita and Odd were near the tower. However, it was guarded by a krabe, 2 tarantulas, and megatank. In the distance, Odd saw Yumi, Ulrich, and Ben coming on the vehicles.

"Need a lift?" Ben called to Odd as he swooped down with a near perfect landing and tossed the board to him.

"Great job not getting a scratch on her!" Odd yelled back as he flew off joining Yumi and Ulrich in the fight. Ben sat back and watched them from a distance, not wanting to transform and hinder their chances of winning.

In the end, Odd had gotten devirtualized, Aelita was down to her last 10 life points, Ulrich and Yumi each had 40 life points left, and Ben had 20 because he had gotten clipped on his toe while pushing Aelita out of the way of a megatank's blast which would have ruined the mission entirely by devirtualizing her. The tower was deactivated, but since none of them had to be pulled out of class for coming to the supercomputer and the attack was non-obvious, they didn't need a return trip. Ben checked once more before they were brought back to the scanner room, and found he could now transform into the Scyphozoa at will.


	4. Upgraded

Sorry to those of you who love this story and were waiting and waiting for me to finish, I pretty much just ran out of time to do anything. Over the summer I will have a lot more time and hopefully will update more. Anyway, here is the latest chapter of Code: Omnitrix

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Upgraded

"Guys, get down here quick!" Jeremie sounded too worried to ignore. All warriors were at the factory computer room in record time.

Usually when the warriors look on the screen they have almost no idea what was going on. However, this time it was just plain obvious. XANA had activated 4 towers, one on each sector.

""I have no idea what XANA is planning, but we all know it can't be good," Jeremie said.

Odd spoke up. "It kind of reminds me of when he impersonated Franz Hopper, remember? He activated a lot of towers then just to pull off an illusion."

"Yes, but I haven't seen ANYTHING out of the ordinary here at all, have you guys?" Jeremie asked. Everyone shook their heads. "Well, we had better get started if we want to stop XANA before he blows up the Earth or something. Everyone to the scanners."

"Jeremie," Ben interrupted, "I have no idea why I didn't think of this earlier, but I may have a better idea for me than going to Lyoko. The 'hard drive' thing is downstairs, right?"

"Um, yeah, but…" Jeremie couldn't say anything else because Ben was already heading down the elevator.

In the main supercomputer room, Ben thought back to the time he got trapped in a videogame. "That was back before I had master control," he said to himself. "I'll be safe this time." Ben transformed into Upgrade and took over the supercomputer.

"What the-???" Jeremie exclaimed. The whole supercomputer seemed to be turning into one giant microchip. Then Jeremie realized what was going on. "Ben, get out of there! Even as Upgrade, you'll never make it past XANA's-"

"OOF!" Ben exclaimed as he was tossed back against the wall, loud enough for everyone in the factory to hear.

"-firewall," Jeremie finished.

Disgruntled, Ben made his way to the scanners with the rest of the gang. Once virtualized, Jeremie gave everyone instructions.

"OK, this is as simple as it gets. You all need to protect Aelita and get her to each of the towers safely. It's just like regular missions, except times 4. The mountain region tower is due west. Afterward head to the Way tower, which is due northeast from that tower. Now GET GOING!

They deactivated the towers in the Mountain, Forest, and Desert sectors without interruption. This worried the whole team.

Jeremie went berserk as he looked at the map screen of the Ice sector upon their arrival. "I knew it. Guys, it's a trap!"

"We can kind of see that, Jeremie!" replied Odd. Between them and the last tower there was a record number of… everything. Bloks, Krabs, Kankrelats, Megatanks; you name it, it was there, even the sector 5 dwellers (minus the Scyphozoa, of course).

Well, there was enough game to go around so everyone ran in there. Odd handled the Bloks and the Megatanks. Ulrich took on the Tarantulas and Hornets. Yumi went up against the Krabs and Mantas. Aelita took on the Kankrelats (weak, but she doesn't want to risk devirtualization). Lastly, Ben-Megatank squashed the Creepers.

Jeremie was relieved when the battle was over. "Well, everyone made it. Looks like XANA's plan didn't work. Aelita, go deactivate that tower and we can go home."

Suddenly, a warning popped up on Jeremie's screen. Jeremie gasped when he saw what it was. "Scratch that, this was all just a diversion. Aelita, stay there and deactivate the tower. You can catch up later. Everyone else, to the end of the sector. XANA's attacking the core again, so it looks like you get to make a trip to sector 5."

Ben was exited. "Seriously? Aw, I've been wanting to go there!" He started running towards the end of the sector.

Jeremie spoke up. "We've got to move fast, so why don't I call up your vehicles. All _4_ of them." This was enough to stop Ben in his tracks.

"What?"

The standard Overboard, Overbike, and Overwing virtualized in front of them, but joining it was a fourth vehicle that was like the Overboard, but was perfectly round and was colored to match the Omnitrix symbol.

"It's the Overdisk," Jeremie explained. "Best I could do in the short time I had to design it."

"Thanks, Jer.!" Ben yelled as he sped off with the rest of the group.

When they got to the end of the sector, Jeremie told them about a new ability he had built into their vehicles.

"Guys, all of you press the red button right in front of you, Odd & Ben the button is centered on the bottom." The vehicles literally folded up and fell to the ground. "Now you can take them with you on foot. It's still a beta program so expect a couple glitches, but you WILL need them at the core zone, as you know. Hurry, the first shield layer is about to blow!"

"Then hurry up and put the password in, Einstein!" Odd replied.

"Got it. Entering the password 'Scipio.'" The Omnitrix beeped.

"What the heck?" Ben said. He looked and a new monster had popped up, a perfect circle. Before he could say anything else, the transporter pod came and took them off to sector 5.

Ben fiddled with the Omnitrix some more when they got there. "I think I just got that transporter thingy when the password was entered, but I don't have it now. Hm."

"Really? That can come be handy in the future. Anyway, Ben, welcome to sector 5. Now go and stop the timer fast!

Ben, as a hornet, got it in less than 15 seconds. They rushed towards the inner area, took out their vehicles, and got into the inner chamber just as the first shield layer went. They fought against the Creepers in there, but every time they took one down, another one took its place. Finally, as the 2nd shield layer was about to fall, Ben rethought his original idea.

"Jeremie, do you think you could hack through XANA's firewall, even for a couple minutes?"

"Yes, but I don't really see how that can help right now…"

"Just do it. Odd, devirtualize me."

"Um… OK." Odd shot him.

Back at the factory, Ben said to himself, "this better work," as he changed into upgrade once again. Jeremie had successfully hacked the firewall and Ben got into the supercomputer. All of sector 5 turned green instead of the default blue. Just as the 2nd shield broke, 3 more took its place. Lasers shot from the walls and destroyed every Creeper in sight. Upgrade just stood there as he destroyed XANA's army.

Suddenly, Ben began to feel weak and the Omnitrix symbol flashed violently. Jeremie noticed what was happening.

"It's copying files to the supercomputer," Jeremie said. "I don't know why, but now part of the programming on the Omnitrix is stored in the computer. Anyway, you might want to get out now, the firewall is about to-"

Ben was thrown against the wall again. "-reboot," Jeremy finished.

Ben grumbled.


	5. The Search

OK, it's been almost a year since I updated last. I am REALLY sorry, and I hope the next two chapters I have planned will make up for it.

Anyway, it's time to turn back to the Ben 10 side of the story. Gwen & Max have been going through portal after portal, trying to find Ben. This chapter will be a 5 part super-crossover with classic shows from Cartoon Network that I love, with a total of 10 shows crossed over including B10. Keep in mind that although I only picture the full stories of 5 places here, there are tons of worlds they visit. If you personally don't like a show that I crossover with, then by all means, skip that part. These are in no particular order.

* * *

The Search – Middle of Nowhere

Max and Gwen were pretty tired of going to every single alternate dimension, but they knew they had to keep looking until they found Ben. On this trip it appeared as though they wound up in the middle of a desert, with only a small farmhouse in sight. When they came out of the portal, a purple-ish dog sleeping on the porch screamed and shot inside.

"You don't see that every day," Gwen said.

They went up and knocked on the door. A crazy old man answered the door.

"Get outta here, I don't care what yer sellin!" With that, he slammed the door harder than Max and Gwen thought physically possible. A couple seconds later, a fat old lady came to the door.

"Oh, I'm really sorry about Eustace. He can be a right pain sometimes. Come in; make yourselves at home. I'm Muriel; this is my dog, Courage."

Max and Gwen accepted the invitation, and sat down in the living room. Eustace came out of the kitchen with a sandwich, and saw Max in the chair.

"Hey! Get out of my chair! I thought I sent you guys off!"

Muriel responded, "Oh, come on Eustace, they're our guests." She turned to Max and Gwen. "Would you like some tea?"

"Sure, that sounds great," Max replied.

Minutes later, Muriel came back with some tea. Gwen took a sip and nearly puked. Max, however, drank half the cup in one gulp.

"Mmm, just a touch of vinegar. I like it! Anyway, have you seen a young boy around? About this tall, brown hair, really weird watch?"

"No, we haven't seen him. Sorry."

"Oh, well." Max finished his tea. Gwen gave hers to Courage, who rejected it. "I guess we better be going, then."

Eustace seemed pleased to hear this. "Well then, what'r ya waitin' fer, git outta my chair!"

With a wave, Max and Gwen went back to their exhausting hunt for Ben. Gwen thought she saw Courage faint out of the corner of her eye as they opened the portal and left.

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The Search – Mad Scientist's lab

Eager to get out of their previous bout with the Grim Reaper, a retard, and a tough girl; Max and Gwen ran out of the portal into what seemed like a crazy sci-fi world. Everything seemed to have a blue chrome tint, and at a desk in front of them, a small boy sat working on what appeared to be a prototype laser. Max went up and tapped him on the shoulder.

"DeeDee, how many times have I told you to STAY OUT OF MY LAB!!!!?"

Max replied, "I'm sorry, but we're kind of lost here. Could you maybe use some of your tech to help us?"

The boy turned around slowly, with wide eyes. "How did you get in here?"

"Using this." Max held up the null void projector.

"Interesting, it seems to be some kind of teleportation device, with a focus offset of approximately 1.235 nanometers, making it possible to move between alternate dimensions!"

"Yes, we know that. Could you-"

"I wonder if I could use this to save the world, if I just set this lens back a bit this could be used to-"

"All we would like to know," Gwen snapped, taking back the NVP, "Is if you've seen a young boy wearing black and white with a mutation device on his arm!"

"Such a device is not possible; it would take excessive DNA bonding, which would take massive amounts of nuclear energy, enough to kill a human in 9.249 seconds."

"Unless," Max added, "Such device is equipped with an energy shield bonded directly with the user's body. I'll take that answer as a no, you haven't seen him."

Suddenly a voice came from behind. "Oooh, what does this do?" A thin blonde girl pushed the trigger on the NVP, activating it.

"DeeDee, for the 3,141,592,653rd time, get out of my lab!"

Gwen shut off the NVP, knocked DeeDee out with it, and jumped through the blue portal. Max followed suit.

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The Search – Meddling Kids

After saying goodbye to the crazy Johnny Bravo, Gwen and Max wound up outside what appeared to be a normal diner. A guy in a green tee and his dog stopped in their tracks, and then ran back into the diner screaming. They came back out with another guy and two girls, one of them a fashion queen and the other an obvious nerd.

"That's them! Like, they just appeared out of nowhere!"

Max explained. "Technically, yah. It's a cross-dimension portal device. We lost my grandson through it, and now we're trying to find him. It's taking forever, have you seen a kid in a black and white shirt, strange green watch?"

The other guy spoke up. "Sorry, we haven't seen him. Anyway, we might as well introduce ourselves. I'm Fred; this is Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby Doo."

"I'm Max and this is my granddaughter, Gwen. It's nice to meet you."

Velma decided to get a word in here. "Max, exactly how does that teleporter work? I've been trying all my life to think of such technology, and I can't see how it's physically possible. Unless, of course, you're faking it to get to us."

"Well, this might take a while. Let's go back into the diner, and talk about it for a while."

6 sundaes later (20 for Shaggy/Scooby), Max had finally told Velma all there was to know about the machine. Gwen enjoyed having some real food for a change, instead of the crud they'd gotten from others. Max and Gwen said goodbye to the gang, and stepped into the portal hoping to find Ben eventually.

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The Search – Alienat'ed'

Thinking things could get no weirder than in the world of "Pokémon" (Although Ash had been pretty nice to them); Gwen and Max were in for a surprise when they landed right in the middle of a small cul-de-sack. A trio of kids playing nearby saw them. The one in yellow screamed, "ALIENS!!!!!!!!!!!" The one in green started screaming even louder. However, the one in red seemed quite friendly.

"Hello, my name is Edd; those are my 'friends', Ed and Eddy. Anyway, it's so good to meet extraterrestrials for the first time, oh wait you probably don't speak English, do you? Let's see, what's another way to communicate…"

Max replied, "Actually, we're extradimensional, not extraterrestrial. Seeing as you're to only sane one here, could you tell us if you've seen a young boy, about your age, wearing black and white, with a weird watch on?"

"Oh, y-you do speak English. Well, let's see… nope, I haven't seen him. Perhaps you could try another dimension? Oh that sounded weird…"

"Oh well, nice to meet you Edd."

"Erm- well, i-it's an honor for me. Go along then…"

Max fired a portal, and they were once again out of there. Both of them felt really weirded out, and they wondered how long it would take to finally catch Ben. It had been 4 days thus far, but time was something they weren't paying much attention to.

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The Search – Operation L.I.E. (LYING IS EVERYTHING)

After leaving Professor Utonium and his super-powered girls, Max and Gwen were seriously reconsidering their plan. Even if they managed to get Ben back, they would have to do this again for a long time before they got back to their own world. As it was, they appeared to have enough trouble in the tree house they had just appeared in. There were 5 kids surrounding them, all with guns.

"Careful, he's got a hostage!"

Gwen looked at Max, and mouthed to him that she had an idea. Then she turned to face the bald kid in red who had just spoken. "It's actually the other way around. This guy threw my colleague into a random portal similar to the one we just came out of. Now I am forcing him to open random portals for me until we find him. Have you seen him? He's got a black and white shirt, brown hair, about your age. Really weird watch on."

"Nope, haven't seen him. But, you came to the right place. This is Kids Next Door Headquarters, I'm Numbah 1, and here are Numbahs 2, 3, 4, and 5. Would you like some help?"

"No, I can handle this one myself. Besides, there's no guarantee you would ever get back to here. The portals are so random, this has been taking us days. Anyway, thanks for the offer, but I really don't have time to waste. Bye!"

And with that, she kicked Max hard in the shin; he opened the portal, and they left.


	6. Copycat

Dang. I almost forgot about this story, and this chapter that I had led up to. Sorry, fans; I lost my notes a little while ago but I can at least remember what I planned for this chapter. Over winter break I promise to post a couple more chapters for you guys.

* * *

Copycat

"So, when do ya think I'll meet this 'William' guy, anyway?"

The team was sitting around in the factory waiting for Jeremie to complete his "scans". Ben was using this time to keep gaining information about the goings-on in this world. Yumi answered his latest question.

"Honestly, Ben, I'm surprised he hasn't shown up by now. I was really expecting him to be in that huge battle, or at least in the attack on the core."

"Ah, he was probably out building some replika while we were fighting back here," Odd speculated. "Construction does take a while."

"Yes, but replikas are digital structures," Aelita explained. "for a program like XANA that can type long codes at 5000 characters per minute, replikas should take hardly much time at all."

Ulrich was tired of all the talk and wanted to go so he could train. "Hey Jeremie, how long until you find that here's nothing wrong with Lyoko and let us off?"

"It's not Lyoko I'm worried about, Ulrich," he responded. "It's what the supercomputer downloaded off of the Omnitrix that's been bugging me. We may have to go in and retrieve the data from sector 5 before XANA does anything nasty with it." Just then, the supercomputer beeped and a tower and some stats popped up on the screen. "Scratch that, we have a problem. Playtime's over, guys; head to the scanners!"

"Like we were playing at all anyway," Ulrich scoffed. "At least this gives us something to do."

Jeremie ignored this remark. "Okay, guys; transfer, scanner, virtualization!"

The activated tower was in the desert region. Once virtualized, the team started running for the tower. The way looked pretty clear, for a while. About halfway there, though, the situation got ugly.

"Um, Jeremie, you may want to see this…"

"I see that a monster strode right up out of nowhere on you; it's not one I recognize. Pulling up a visual now. Oh god..."

"Recognize him, now? Einstein?" Odd yelled.

Jeremie's jaw hung open for a half second before recomposing himself. "Well, I guess that's what XANA took from the watch then."

Of course, that was obvious to everyone by this point, as what stood in front of the team was not one of XANA's standard monsters; it was an exact clone of Fourarms with the eye of XANA superimposed on his top left shoulder. Once Jeremie convinced himself that they were going to have to fight these guys for a while, he started barking out orders.

"Ben, you know that thing and all of its weaknesses best; you and Ulrich stay back to fight it. Yumi, Odd, Aelita; go deactivate that tower."

"Sounds like a plan," Odd said, and they all ran toward their target.

"So Ben," shouted Ulrich while dodging a devastating double haymaker, "what's big red's biggest weakness?"

"The fact that the watch seems to confuse him and Greymatter a lot," he responded just before turning into a Megatank.

"Well, that doesn't help much, does it?" Ulrich yelled at Ben as he was flying overhead due to the XANA-Fourarms' throw.

Meanwhile, the other three were almost at the tower. They were just about 20 meters away, when a XANA-Wildmutt leapt out before them. Odd was not exactly enthralled.

"Oh, whoop-de-doo. A giant dog, just was a cat needs to face every day. Laser arrow!" The mutt dodged all of them with ease.

"Get to the tower, Aelita," Yumi yelled as she threw her fans. "We'll put a muzzle on him."

Back a little ways on the path, Ben and Ulrich were still having rotten luck against the Fourarms clone.

"Our best bet, Ulrich, is probably just to go for the XANA symbol. That's the brain center for all of his other monsters, why differ on this one?"

"Agreed. How about you take right and distract him with a hornet or something, and I pull left and try to stab his arm."

Jeremie interrupted them before they could execute this plan. "Wait, guys; I think I have a better idea."

"This better be good Jer; Ben and I are running low on energy."

"I know, which is why you guys will have to do this fast. Ben, turn into the Scyphozoa.

"What on Earth is your plan, Jeremie?"

"Just do it! Cover him while he changes, Ulrich."

"Alright, alright." Ben found the Scyphozoa on the Omnitrix, and transformed. "What now Jeremie?"

"Now get to Fourarms and download its entire programming, plus anything else like the location of where the main code is stored."

Getting to XANA-Fourarms was not going to be easy. Ulrich had to distract him for quite some time in order for Ben to sneak up behind it. The Scyphozoa may be invincible, but not immune to Lyoko's laws of physics. He got thrown back quite a few times before Ulrich finally managed to turn XANA's beast around long enough for Ben to wrap his tentacles around it and download the entire code. Since the Scyphozoa works with a cut-and-paste act instead of a copy-and-paste action, the XANA-Fourarms was destroyed immediately.

"Good job guys, I'm now receiving the data. Now, go help the others."

Back closer to the tower, Yumi and Odd were having quite a tough time protecting Aelita. Wildmutt was proving extremely agile, and had dang near knocked the two of them out. Even Aelita was down to 50% life points. They were all 3 relieved when Jeremie spoke to them again.

"Hang in there guys, Ben and Ulrich are on their way."

They got there just in time to see Wildmutt bite Yumi's head off, devirtualizing her immediately. Everyone had a look of shock and disgust on their face, but Ulrich's soon changed to rage.

"YUMI! _Supersprint!_" And with that, he took off running towards the overgrown mutt that had just killed Yumi in the least humane way possible. Wildmutt was fast, but nothing's faster than an enraged Ulrich. "_Impact!_"

By the time anybody knew what just happened, both of Ulrich's swords were stuck in XANA's eye symbol and Wildmutt was smashed into a billion pieces. Not bothering to stick around and chat, Aelita took the opportunity to run and deactivate the tower. While she was off, the rest of the group talked to Ulrich.

"That is the fastest I've ever seen you run, Ulrich," said Odd, "but could you please explain what exactly gave you the impulse to go rageguy on us?"

"You saw what he did to Yumi. That was just… not right."

"Agreed," stated Ben, turning back into himself. "But seriously dude, you could have at least just knocked him out or something. Jeremie probably needed that code in order to find out what XANA's up to. Speaking of which, do you have that little part figured out for us, brainiac?"

"As a matter of fact I do," said Jeremie. "From what I can determine based on Fourarms' code, XANA managed to download the DNA sequence of your 10 original aliens. However, he only has one copy of each alien, as the structures he downloaded directly off of the Omnitrix were way too complex to copy."

"So that's two down, eight to go, right Jeremie?"

"Wrong, Ulrich. Your little stunt merely disabled Wildmutt temporarily. Fourarms, on the other hand, is gone from the system. Well, not completely, I guess. Watch this."

The Omnitrix suddenly started flashing, and soon Ben found that Fourarms was among his choices for Lyoko monsters.

"Sweet. So, now we find each alien, download its code, and it gets put on my virtual Omnitrix. That sounds like a plan."

"Just watch out for William riding Stinkfly. That's a double P.U.!"

Not surprisingly, Odd's joke received not but crickets. It was then that Aelita finally deactivated the tower (she had paused halfway there to listen in on the conversation, and left right after Jeremie explained what he'd found in the code), and they all went to bed exhausted. Of course, due to Ulrich's threat to the rest of the troop, Yumi believed from then on that Ulrich had defeated the Wildmutt clone a little more peacefully than he actually did, but it was brought up a few times in the future as a joke when she wasn't around. But that's going off on a completely different story, so let's just stick to this one.


	7. ALICE In Wonderland

Ouch. Sorry I haven't updated, guys... I promise not to make any more promises I can't keep (believe me, I can keep that one). Over time my writing style has changed slightly, but hopefully not enough to ruin the story. I did come up with the idea for this chapter when I wrote the last one, but I never got it written in time... and I lost my research when my laptop messed up. I finally got around to writing again, and I have this chapter and the next entirely planned out. Anyway, I know it doesn't match up with the canon, but this chapter takes place on September 19, 2008, as it is entirely based on true events.

* * *

A.L.I.C.E in Wonderland

"So, what'd you guys manage to sneak away today?"

"Whatever this meat stuff is. On a bun. Don't worry, it's good." Odd handed him a lunch that he managed to sneak out.

"You say that about everything you eat. Well, anything's better than everything grandpa cooked, I guess. Jeremie got anything for us to do on Lyoko today? "

"Doubt it, but you never know."

Despite him trying to look humble, it was clear Ben did not like staying at the factory all the time getting food stolen from the cafeteria. On some occasions Yumi would be able to take some home cooked food to him, but Ben's life had become borderline miserable since he left his own world. There were times when he just virtualized himself so he'd have something to do instead of just sit around. He played around all over Lyoko, always careful to avoid the digital sea. Other times, he'd mess around in the factory, trying to keep in shape and keep entertained. He enjoyed the other Lyoko warriors' company while he had it. Odd sat next down next to him as Ben ate.

"Yeah, I know; lunch of champions. Trust me dude, Jeremie and Aelita are doing their best to figure out how to send you back where you came from."

"I know," Ben replied in between bites. "I bet Max and Gwen are doing their best to find me too." A couple seconds later, Odd's phone rang.

"It's Jeremie. Maybe he's got something to keep you busy." Odd answered the call. "Hey Einstein. What's up?"

"The scanner's detected a new replika. I need you to get to the factory ASAP, we don't wanna let XANA get anything in under our noses."

"Already there, Jeremie," Odd replied. "Do you want Ben and me to go in now, or wait for you to show up?"

Ben was intrigued by the one side of the conversation he could hear. "Do we finally have something to do around this place?"

"Alrighty Jer, we'll wait for you." Odd hung up. "It's your lucky day, kid. We got a replika to take care of."

"Sweet! Finally, some action after a couple days." Ben shoved the last of the lunch in his mouth ran over to the elevator. Odd caught up and they both went down to the control room together. The others showed up in due time and they were virtualized into sector 5.

As they approached the giant elevator that led to the skid's dock, Ben looked up in amazement. "Whoa, that thing's huge! How fast can it go?" As if answering his question, Ulrich shoved him off onto it as it zoomed upwards to the Celestial Dome. Ben was even more impressed when they finally got to the skid. Sure, he had seen real life spaceships, but the virtual sub was sleek and shiny and awesome.

"You can take William's spot for now, Ben. Teleport!" With that, everyone was teleported into the skid and Aelita took off and dove.

This was Ben's first time ever seeing the digital sea, and it was awesome to him. As they approached the hub, Ben asked, "Is that a portal of some kind?"

Aelita answered. "It's a network hub; it can be used to send us clear across the web near instantaneously."

Odd clarified. "That means you better buckle your seat belt, because the trip down the rabbit hole is faster than you'd think." With this, Ben started holding on tightly in preparation for the transport.

They zoomed through the hub and got close to the replika fairly soon, and they all noticed first how big it was compared to Lyoko, especially Aelita.

"Wow, for a replika of only one sector it's pretty huge."

"Maybe it could actually be a replika of all of Lyoko?" suggested Yumi.

"It's possible," Jeremie responded, "but what's for sure is that the supercomputer behind it is a BIG one." Their thoughts were then cut short by the digital sea turning red around them.

"Guys, what does that mean?"

Odd answered Ben's question. "It means adult swim time, and XANA's the lifeguard."

"That figures. So, what's he gonna send?"

Jeremie could already see the threat on his screen. "It's… very bad. You are not going to like this." Aelita turned the skid around just in time for XANA-Ripjaws to whip right past it.

"Any useful advice, Ben?" Ulrich called out.

"Don't let him bite anything, and if possible try to get him on dry land."

"I have an idea," Aelita said. "You distract him, I'll go open the door. Navskids away."

While Jeremie and Aelita worked on cracking the lock on the giant replika, the four others were darting around Ripjaws like flies. None of them stayed in one place long enough for him to get a bite in, and while he did scratch Yumi's navskid, nobody got hit full on.

When Aelita called the navskids back, as soon as they were all together they took off into the replika at a high speed, but still not full turbo so that Ripjaws could follow. Soon, they popped out of the top of the sea and looked around. They were in a replika of the ice sector. Ripjaws jumped up at them from in the water as Odd hummed the Jaws theme, to nobody's amusement.

"Lemme at him!" yelled Ben.

Ben and Ulrich got teleported onto the replika so that they could deal with the issue. Ben quickly took on Scyphozoa form as Ulrich taunted the XANA-Ripjaws.

"So you've proven you an rule a sea of _tears_, big deal. How about you show us your stuff on land, huh? EAT ME!" Ripjaws jumped out of the water and split his tail into legs, suddenly ignoring the Skid that he couldn't reach anyway in favor of the annoying snack in reach.

"Supersprint!" Ulrich darted in circles around Ripjaws, but got swatted out of the way easy enough. It still gave Ben enough time to get in and download the alien and send it to Jeremie to pack into his virtual Omnitrix.

"Good job guys, now it's just a matter of getting into the replika and smashing the supercomputer. Odd and Yumi can go. I'll keep you two there in case XANA sends anything else, and send Aelita after she parks the Skid at the tower.

"Alright, Jeremie, We'll be vigilant."

"What does that word even mean?" Ben asked.

"Alert, focused, you know, everything Odd's not."

"Hey! I resent that."

Jeremie interrupted before the argument could carry on. "Let's get you two separated before you devirtualize each other, alright? The skid is docked, teleport!" Ulrich and Ben took opposite sides of the skid to guard it, and Aelita joined them soon enough.

Meanwhile, Odd and Yumi had shown up inside a gigantic tube that was filled with a ton of wires and lights. It didn't seem to have an end in sight; it was just a huge constant curve. Odd piped up first.

"Any idea where we are, Einstein?"

"I'm working on it. It looks like you're somewhere in Europe, but I don't know of any supercomputers large enough to hold a replika of Lyoko in its entirety in your general area."

"Wherever we are, it sure looks high tech," Yumi stated. "And it is big."

"Wait, are you in a giant circle?"

"Yes Jeremie, have you finally figured out where we are?

"Yes, and why XANA has so much storage space and processing power. You're at one of the many computers hooked up to the CERN network for the Large Hadron Collider. XANA has a total of 15 petabytes at his disposal!"

"Care to convert that into dual sided DVDs for us, Jer?"

"About 1.7 million, Odd. I bet each of the way towers in the 5 sectors leads to a different computer. There's absolutely no way to shut them all down without arousing suspicion; you'll have to find a way to get the scientists in charge to take the LHC offline long enough for us to find a more efficient way of getting rid of XANA's Lyoko ripoffs."

"But we have to make it look like an accident, don't we?" asked Yumi.

"Of course. See if you can find anything that looks important; I'm going to check on how the others are doing."

Back on the replika, the trio had their hands full with XANA's Diamondhead. Everyone was barely dodging the crystals he threw and Ben's only advice was to try and get a stunning shot behind him. This was proving very difficult to do, and Ben's Scyphozoa form couldn't get close to it without getting knocked backwards or blocked by a crystal wall.

"Hey guys, looks like you need backup. I'm sending your vehicles now; try to get to them." The Overwing and Overbike appeared not far from the fight. Ulrich and Aelita ran to get them while Ben distracted Diamondhead.

"Thanks Jeremie," Yelled Ulrich as he shot through Diamondhead's legs, slicing both. This gave Ben the distraction he needed so that he could download Diamondhead's information as well.

"Two in one day, alright!"

I wouldn't celebrate yet, Ben," said Ulrich as he looked into the distance. "It looks like XANA's pulling out all the stops." Ben turned around just in time to see William approaching fast on his manta. Jeremie did not react like everyone else.

"This is absolutely perfect!"

"What the heck are talking about, Jeremie?"

"The Scyphozoa is the one who got William into this mess, I think Ben might be able to get him out."

"Do you realize how hard it was to get Diamondhead? I don't think William is going to be any easier," Aelita said as she shot an energy field at the manta shooting at them.

Ben tried to use the Scyphozoa's tentacles to grab William as he fell off his ride. However, instead of cooperating, William did a backflip over Ben and put a clean cut straight through the Omnitrix symbol, causing Ben to immediately turn back into his human form. "Ok, that plan's a bust."

"Well, Ben, looks like you're about to get a crash course in butt-kicking," Ulrich said as he started dueling William.

Meanwhile at the LHC, Odd and Yumi were wandering around trying without luck to find a control room where they could cause a malfunction. Jeremie turned his attention to this scene briefly as the battle with William carried on.

"I feel like a rabbit running around a maze looking for a carrot. How much time has passed, anyway? Hey Jeremie, think you can program me a pocketwatch or something?"

Yumi was ignoring his monologue. "I'm not seeing anything we can do here. Are you, Odd?"

"We could always try shooting it."

"We don't want to make it look like sabotage, do we?"

Jeremie had an idea at that point. "Actually, Odd's laser arrows conduct electricity well enough that if he can launch one into some circuitry, the arrow will cause an electrical failure in the system and possibly ruin a whole section of the collider."

"That's great news Einstein, but which of the millions of cords here would be the most efficient to sever?"

"I'm pulling up an electrical map of the complex right now. Alright, there's a helium cooling tank up the next corridor on your right. You might want to get there fast; the reason you haven't run into any scientists or workers is because there's a test scheduled to happen within the next 10 minutes."

"Gotcha Jer, we're moving."

"Isn't helium the stuff they use to make balloons float? Why do they have to cool it?"

"It's liquid helium, Odd, compressed and really cold. They use it to make sure the LHC doesn't overheat and catch fire or blow up. If the tank is ruptured, they'll have to shut off the entire system for a few months before it's safe to do anything but clean up. A simple arc caused by a laser arrow in between magnets should do the trick."

"So… where exactly do you want me to aim?"

Yumi answered his question. "He's saying to aim for the mega microchip next to the big vat."

"Well, why didn't you just say so? Laser arrow!" The arrow punctured the circuit board and was instantly vaporized by a huge electrical arc that also ruptured the tank.

"Great job, guys. I'll pull you out now so that you don't get frozen by helium or get caught by the scientists, and also mess with their security camera footage to make it look like a freak accident."

In the main control center, the workers got an alert that there was an electrical fault in the system. Checking the security camera, they saw there was a huge spark and a huge section of the machine was flooded by helium. Cancelling the tests, the scientists started shutting down every computer inside the local network to start repairs.

Odd and Yumi had wandered long enough that the electrical fault was closer to another station, and thus it was the other sectors that were deactivating first. William bashed Ben aside for one last time (Ulrich was already devirtualized) and dove into the digital sea. Everyone got into the Skid and made it out of the replika at the last second before they were trapped until the LHC was turned on again. Looking back, they saw multiple lights around the replika going dark, and Jeremie saw the replika disappear from the network map. The trip back was relatively uneventful. Jeremie debriefed in the lab after they had parked the Skid and were materialized.

"Alright Ben, on your way back I managed to get Ripjaws and Diamondhead into your virtual Omnitrix. This means we have 3 down and seven to go."

Odd asked Ben about his fight with William. "So, how bad did you get your butt kicked?"

"Not as bad as Ulrich. Still, even Megatanks are kinda weak when against him. He was too fast for Fourarms and I didn't have any other aliens to use until the trip back."

"Well," Jeremie concluded, "we got a huge chunk of XANA's processing power taken down. Hopefully we won't have such a large-scale replika again. But if we do, we'll be ready!"

* * *

Title explanation: A.L.I.C.E. stands for "A Large Ion Collider Experiment" and is the code name of category containing all of the heavy ion collisions experiments at the LHC. I mainly just chose the title for the pun and to make as many Wonderland references in the story as possible. I didn't get as many in as I'd hoped, but I got a couple.


	8. Contact

Once again, sorry for waiting so long in between updates. I've spent a lot of time since last chapter watching Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, so I've just now made some decisions about the overall setting of this story. For instance, I've decided that all the events in C.O. do not take place in the canon timelines of Ben 10 and Code: Lyoko, but rather in completely alternate universes where the past events leading up to the incident that brought them together were virtually the same. This should give me a bit more freedom now that I don't have to obey canon as strictly, while still keeping approximately the same atmosphere. Anyway, I have basically the entire rest of the story planned out at this point, so enjoy! (If you don't, please write a review telling me what you'd rather read so that I can alter my plans or writing style as needed)

* * *

Contact

It started out as just another normal morning for Jeremie. He woke up to his alarm, got ready for classes fairly early, then got on his computer to check up on Lyoko, the network, and personal communications. Lyoko was fine, there were no new replikas discovered overnight, and he just had 3 new e-mails.

The first was from Aelita; she wanted to know his status on the program to send Ben home. There hadn't been much progress; figuring out exactly how to travel between realities was near impossible. All Jeremie had to work with was speculation and relatively crude calculations. For all of his and Aelita's combined intelligence, he could barely figure anything out about the structure of the space-time continuum. He was beginning to fear that it was physically impossible for them to send Ben home.

The second message was from someone claiming to be a Nigerian prince who needed some money. Jeremie deleted that one and quickly updated his spam filter.

The third message didn't have a subject, and oddly enough, didn't have a sender. It did, however, have a huge pdf attachment entitled 'diagrams.' Curious to see what it was, Jeremie double checked that his virus protection was active and opened the e-mail.

Despite Jeremie just having woken up less than 15 minutes ago, he was suddenly as alert as if he'd had a truckload of caffiene. He printed off a copy of the e-mail and attachment to show the rest of the group at lunch, quickly replied to Aelita's e-mail, and blew off his morning classes for programming.

Aelita woke up like normal and got ready for classes like she always did. On her way out for breakfast, she wondered if Jeremie had noticed the e-mail she sent last night. She figured that even if he did, he hadn't made a major breakthrough yet, so she shouldn't bother checking. Curiosity and a subliminal hope for any new data drove her to check anyway.

* * *

**From: **Jeremie Belpois**  
****To: **Aelita Stones**  
****Cc:  
****Subject: **Re: Progress?**  
****Attachments: **diagrams,pdf

I think we basically won the lottery, Aelita. I'm not going to waste time describing it; just check out the attachment. I received it from an anonymous sender.

_-Jeremie_

* * *

Aelita opened the attachment and was puzzled at first, but when she figured out what the diagrams were of she ditched all her plans for the day and rushed over to help Jeremie with coding. Neither of them left their rooms until lunchtime.

When Jeremie and Aelita joined the group for lunch, the others were puzzled at their absence from classes.

"Okay, we understand you skipping breakfast; you do that all the time. But since when do you skip math?" Ulrich asked as Jeremie sat his lunch tray at the table.

"You missed a quite interesting lecture on weird shapes. I bet that if I'd have payed attention, I could find the surface area of what I believe are supposed to be mashed potatoes," Odd added while gesturing to his lunch tray.

Yumi was slightly worried. "None of us have seen either of you all morning. Did something happen on Lyoko?"

"As far as I know, nothing's happened on Lyoko for a while. Aelita and I skipped geometry to study universal geometry. I was sent a message from an anonymous source that basically contained a map to reality." Jeremie pulled out the printout of the e-mail. "Here's the e-mail, check it out!"

* * *

**From:  
****To: **Jeremie Belpois  
**Cc:  
****Subject:  
****Attachments:** diagrams,pdf

Hello there, Jeremie. I'm not technically supposed to contact you like this, but seeing as I am, can you do me a favor? I need someone to write a program for me that would be able to track specific bodies through multiple realities. Now, I know you have been trying to write something like this for weeks to no avail, but I have attached some detailed diagrams and descriptions of the space-time continuum that should help you. I would write the program myself, but I'm afraid my specialties do not include programming on this scale. Just e-mail me the code for the program in a reply whenever you finish, and don't worry, I have time to spare.

Signed,  
_[unsigned]_

* * *

All of them were somewhat intrigued by this.

"Any idea who sent this?" Yumi asked.

"At first I thought it was Franz Hopper," Jeremie answered, "but this message's style doesn't match his, and if it had come from him I would have traced the IP back to somewhere within the network."

"You actually completed that IP trace?" Aelita asked. "I thought you said you gave up on it because it was causing you too many problems."

"While you were trying to work out the neutrino-quark superposition bug right before we left for lunch, I figured out why I couldn't trace the IP. Whatever it was sent from didn't even have one!"

There was a slight pause throughout the group; Aelita's hesitation from surprise rather than confusion like the rest of the group's. Odd was the first to speak up. "English, Jeremie?"

"An IP address is like the postal address of a machine. For instance, people have letters sent to and from the address of their homes to communicate to others, and the supercomputer has data sent to and from its IP address to communicate with the network. The equivalent of this e-mail is a letter with no return address that just materialized at the post office. Whatever computer sent it... doesn't exist."

"So, what you're saying is you got an e-mail from an internet hobo that knows more than you?"

"Seriously Ulrich," Jeremie answered, "I think anyone capable of giving me a map like that could make that e-mail appear directly in my computer from anywhere."

"Anywhere? Maybe it was from the guy who built Ben's watch, and he wants a way to get Ben back."

"Odd, I think anyone capable of building and programming a device like the Omnitrix who has access to the information I received could program that on their own. It is fairly likely that the sender is from Ben's universe, though. It would be best to ask him.

Later, Jeremie and Aelita went to the factory to tell Ben what happened and ask him if he could explain it.

"The only guy I can think of who would know that kind of stuff is Azmuth, and it's almost definitely not him."

"Is he the inventor of the Omnitrix?"

"Yeah. You'd think he'd want it back, but based on how he acted last time we met, I think he would rather let me stay here than go to the trouble of recovering it."

"So, there's no one else who would have access to that information?" Aelita thought for a moment. "What about the inventor of the Null Void Projector?"

"That's standard issue for all plumbers; I have no idea who created it."

"Didn't you say your grandpa modified it somehow? That implies that he knows how it works."

"My grandpa 'knows how it works?' He tried upgrading it, and the dang thing sent me here! Honestly guys, I have no idea who that message could have come from."

"Still, the message almost definitely came from your world. I'll keep researching; heck, maybe the information this guy sent can tell me who sent it. The program's almost complete; Aelita and I will have it done by tomorrow and will start working on ways to use it with the supercomputer to send you home."

"What about the guy who sent the message and his plans? What if all he needs is the program and I can go home?"

"Even if he pulls you out the moment I send the program, I'll still want to work with the info a bit more just out of curiosity."

A warning flashed on the supercomputer screen, alerting the three of them.

"Enough about the program right now; a tower has just been activated in the desert sector! Both of you get down to the scanner room; I'll call Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi."


	9. High Speed Combat

High Speed Combat

"Transfer, scanner, virtualization!"

Ben and Aelita were dropped onto the desert sector of Lyoko just as Ulrich came running through the elevator to Jeremie.

"XANA's trapped Yumi and Odd in a dorm at the school. I managed to escape mine, but they probably won't be making it anytime soon."

"Alright. We don't have much time to waste, Ulrich. Get down to the scanner room." Jeremie turned his attention back to Lyoko as Ulrich went back into the elevator. "The tower's due north of you. Get going; Ulrich will be joining you shortly. And be careful, this is too old hat to be just an attack on the real world; it's probably a trap."

"We're on our way, Jeremie," Aelita responded. "And of course it's a trap, I don't see any monsters yet."

"Key word: yet," Ulrich said as he caught up to them.

Just as he said that, a red triangle popped up on Jeremie's screen.

"I see one dead ahead of you; it's moving fast."

Before he could say anything else a streak of dark blue rammed into Aelita, sending her flying off the edge of the sector. At the last second Ben caught her arm, preventing her from falling into the digital sea.

"Thanks, Ben."

"No problem."

Meanwhile, Ulrich quickly figured out what was going on. "So that's how you want to play, huh, XANA? Alright. Supersprint!"

The landscape flashed with streaks of yellow and blue as Ulrich and XLR8 fought, each trying to get a leg up on the other. In terms of both speed and strength, they were proving to be almost an exact match for each other.

After helping Aelita up, Ben quickly turned into the Schyphozoa.

"Run for the tower, Aelita. I think Ulrich's got him pretty distracted. We'll join you when we're done with him." She nodded, and ran off towards the tower.

Ulrich and XLR8 were relatively stationary now, and were engaged in a blur of a swordfight – XLR8 using its arms while Ulrich used his swords. Ben tried to sneak up, but before he could make a move, XLR8 ran off. Ulrich quickly gave chase again, using his triplicate ability as a distraction. It worked well enough; one of the clones was able to lead XLR8 right into Ben's tentacles to be downloaded. Jeremie spoke up when the download process started.

"XLR8's code signature changes too rapidly for the supercomputer to do efficiently. Ulrich, go back up Aelita; Ben's going to be here a while." Another few enemies appeared on the supercomputer screen. "And get to her fast; William's almost got her cornered! Here's your Overbike, now go!"

"On it, Jer."

"Energy field!" Aelita took out a manta, but there were too many converging on her. She brushed against her bracelet and tried to fly to the tower, but she was just shot down by another manta.

She was locked in a block against William's sword when Ulrich came crashing down on them. Oddly enough, the Mantas were ignoring Aelita and focused only on Ulrich as he dodged his way through to William.

William took a quick break from trying to attack Aelita to knock Ulrich back a few feet, giving Aelita enough time to slap an energy field across his face and run. Before she got far, however, William kicked her off the edge into the digital sea below.

"No!" Ulrich screamed as he shot back towards William. In his blind rage, however, Ulrich failed to block in time and was quickly stabbed by William. As he devirtualized, he saw a white pillar shoot up from the digital sea, proving that Aelita had fallen.

Jeremie was horrified. "No, this can't happen. Not Aelita! Ben, XLR8 just finished downloading. I'm putting it on your virtual watch, get over there!"

"You can take over a computer network. You can take over Earth. You can even take over the universe. But this; this calls for a true butt-kicking." With that, Ben tapped his Omnitrix symbol with a tentacle and rushed off as XLR8.

William and the mantas were waiting by the edge, though for what nobody was sure. Ben didn't care; he went in and clocked William in the face at a million km/h. The mantas shot at Ben, but he easily dodged everything, including William's sword. It seemed like William was going to go down in an instant when a strange glow arose from beneath the sector. William quickly supersmoked behind Ben and threw him out of the way.

"FIRE!"

As a bright orb arose from the sea, all 3 mantas that were left fired at it, knocking it back.

"Jeremie, what is that?"

"It can't be.. but it is! It's… Franz Hopper! Ben, you have protect him at all costs, you hear me?"

"Not a problem." Ben rushed back, and sliced one of the mantas to ribbons. Franz moved against the line of fire towards the tower, and right next to it, dropped off his daughter. Ben took out another manta while still holding off William, but the last one was still firing.

"He's almost out of energy; he can't make it much longer!"

Aelita regained consciousness just as William caught and devirtualized Ben. She looked up and saw the orb and the one remaining manta.

"Daddy? Daddy! You have to go!"

Apparently heeding his daughter's words, Franz Hopper quickly dropped himself back into the digital sea. William, pissed that he had missed his one chance to destroy Franz Hopper forever, ran after Aelita as she entered the tower. As he entered, though, Aelita greeted him with an energy field in the face and deactivated the tower without his interference.

Aelita exited the scanners to some minor cheering for her being alive, and some minor threats about scaring them like that. Jeremie debriefed them all after Odd and Yumi got back to the factory.

"Well, now we know why XANA wants Aelita thrown in the digital sea so much. He's trying to lure Franz Hopper out and destroy him before he can give us any more help. I have a feeling he's going to be the key to stopping XANA once and for all. As for you, Ben, Aelita and I will probably get the program finished and sent tonight, so if-"

"Actually, I was thinking about that. What if the person who sent that was a bad guy, hired by Vilgax or something to try to bring me to them? Are you sure you want to send that program?"

"You have master control activated," Odd noted. "If you get kidnapped, you can just kick your captors' butts, right?"

"Believe me, Aelita and I have discussed that very possibility in detail. From what we can tell, you have a much better chance of getting home if we send the program."

"But what about the downloaded aliens? You'll still need my help for those. I want to get home, but I don't want to abandon you guys either."

"We can manage without you, Ben. Besides, there's no guarantee you'll be taken back as soon as we send it."

"Okay, I'll trust you on this. But in case I disappear as soon as you send it, bye."

"You were a big help, Ben, and you hopefully still will be." Aelita typed up the last of the coding and saved the program. Jeremie went over to the computer and created a reply to the original anonymous e-mail, took a look at Ben, and sent it.

They waited for about half a minute in complete silence before Ulrich spoke up.

"Well, I guess you're stuck with us for a little while longer, Ben. Good thing, too; XLR8 is awesome. We should totally race sometime."

"Yeah, how 'bout tomorrow?"

"Ice sector, 4:00. Be there!"

"Oh you are so going down."

"Fat chance!"

Everyone split off for the night. Yumi and Odd weren't in any trouble as it was only around midnight and they could sneak back easily.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, a man sat down in front of a computer and checked his pocketwatch. He looked up just as an e-mail appeared.

"Here we are, right on schedule."


End file.
